On
June 4, 1861, the Bath City Grays, one of the more active Maine militia
units, was mustered into federal service as part of the 3rd Maine Infantry
Regiment. They formed all of Company A and most of Company D. The
majority of the men were tradesmen, shipwrights, shopkeepers, and
artisans, while the rest of the unit came from towns up and down the
Kennebec River--Gardiner, Hallowell, Augusta, Winthrop, Waterville,
Winslow, and Skowhegan. The unit encamped on the grounds of Capitol
Park, directly in front of the Maine statehouse and overlooking the
Kennebec River. The Regiment was commanded by Col. Oliver O. Howard
from Leeds, Maine, who went on to serve as a general during the war.
Howard was the head of the Freedmen's Bureau after the war. (Howard
University is named after him.) The 3rd Maine first "saw the elephant"
(a Civil War term meaning one's first time in battle) at the first
battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, and during the next three years
was engaged in 25 major battles, including the Peninsular Campaign,
Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the
Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. There were many smaller skirmishes as
well, and by June of 1864 the greatly reduced 3rd Maine found most
of its men had served their three years. Sixty-four of the original
men re-enlisted and they, along with the replacement recruits, were
transferred to the 17th Maine at Cold Harbor just before the awful
slaughter there. When the 17th Maine Infantry mustered out of service
on June 10, 1865, several veterans of the original 3rd Maine had served
four years and one week.

The
camp of the 3rd Maine, September, 1861.

From
March 1862 to early April 1864 the 3rd Maine served in the 1st Division
of the Third Corps attached to the Army of the Potomac. When Gen.
Daniel Butterfield followed up on an idea of Gen. Philip Kearny and
developed the Union Army's corps badge insignias in 1863, the 3rd
Maine men began attaching the red diamond-shaped fabric pieces to
their caps. Shortly after Gen. Grant assumed command of all Union
armies in March of 1864, the decimated Third Corps was disbanded and
the 3rd Maine joined the reorganized Second Corps. It was while serving
with the Third Corps that the 3rd Maine experienced what was probably
its most difficult day. On the morning of July 2, 1863, 196 enlisted
men and 14 officers reported for duty with the Regiment, which was
positioned near the left of the Union line running south of Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania. (About 1000 men had left Maine with the Regiment in
the summer of 1861.) Ordered to reconnoiter the Confederate positions
in front of the Third Corps, the 3rd Maine, along with about 100 Berdan
Sharpshooters, encountered and skirmished with Confederates in Pitzer's
woods during the morning. Several 3rd Maine men were killed or wounded.
Later that day, after Third Corps commander Gen. Daniel Sickles ordered
the entire corps to move forward and take an unsupported position
well in front of the main Union line, the 3rd Maine found itself,
along with three other regiments from different brigades, in an exposed
line of battle near the Peach Orchard. In the fight with attacking
Confederates of Gen. James Longstreet's corps which soon followed,
the men of the 3rd Maine fought desperately and were nearly surrounded
before they were forced to give ground. The entire color guard company,
Co. K, many of whom came from Leeds, was killed or captured. The 3rd
Maine, along with the other regiments in the vicinity of the Peach
Orchard and Wheat Field, helped to delay the Confederate advance and
buy time for the Union Army to reinforce its left flank and defeat
the attack. That evening 97 3rd Maine men were present to answer the
roll call.